President Danilo Medina says he is appalled by the deaths of 11 babies in the Robert Reid Cabral hospital over the weekend of 4-5 October 2014.
Presidential spokesman Roberto Rodriguez Marchena said that the President was in a state of shock and conveyed his condolences to the parents of the deceased children. In order to establish exactly what happened, the President has set up a committee made up of Attorney General Francisco Dominguez Brito, National Investigations Department (DNI) director Sigfrido Pared Perez, National Police chief Major General Manuel Castro Castillo and National Health Insurance (SENASA) director Altagracia Guzman Marcelino.
Rodriguez Marchena added that if the report revealed any negligence then sanctions would follow.
He said that the President had deliberately omitted the Minister of Public Health, Freddy Hidalgo so that the committee would be impartial.
According to staff at the hospital, the babies died due to a failure in the integrated oxygen supply system and the breakdown of elevators meaning that oxygen tanks could not be provided for them, but this was denied by hospital director Rosa Nieves Paulino.
http://www.listindiario.com/la-republica/2014/10/7/340579/Danilo-esta-en-shock-por-muerte-de-once-infantes